Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Walt Disney World At The Airport

Well I'm back from Disney World....and I'm tired! Who said that vacations were supposed to be relaxing, huh?

I will be doing some posts on the various parks and attractions but for this first post I am going to start at the beginning.....the VERY beginning.....the airport to be exact. I always make a point to stop at the "Magic of Disney" store at the Orlando airport. During past visits, I've wanted to snap some pictures of the interior and exterior, but my camera is usually buried too deep in my luggage and I'm usually being hurried along by the people I'm with. Well this time, I wasn't going to be rushed! These first two shots show a couple large relief panels of Mickey outside the store.

Mickey can also be found inside.

Not too far from the "Magic of Disney" is another Disney store, "Disney's Earport."

Goofy is located outside one of the entrances (Please No Climbing!)

And Snow White is sitting just outside of a second entrance.

Next to Snow White is a Magic Mirror. The images within the mirror are lenticular (the images change as they are viewed from different angles). Ariel, Cinderella and Aurora can all be seen in the mirror depending on where you are standing at the moment.

Inside the store is a rear-lit photo of Cinderella's Castle at the Magic Kingdom. The pixie dust swirling around the castle and up into the air is fiber optic and "twinkles."

Now I must say that I am not really into the whole "Hidden Mickey" thing, but an employee saw me taking the picture and came over to point one out, so here it is.

Spider-Man can also be found in the Disney Store, right next to the Disney Princess merchandise. Just kidding! This was actually taken at the Universal store across the way. But it has been two years now since Disney purchased Marvel and I am wondering what their plans are for those characters. If Disney wanted to build a separate Marvel park somewhere, I think that would be fine, but I hope the characters don't start turning up in any of the existing parks. That would be like adding Kermit the Frog, Indiana Jones, or R2-D2 to Disneyland. Oh wait....

One of the main reasons for wanting to stop at the airport Disney stores is that I almost always find merchandise there that I do not come across again at the parks. And since I always seem to be flying home early in the morning before the airport stores open, there are no second chances for purchasing those items. Over the years I've learned that if there is something that I really want, I have to buy it when I see it. This was the case again during this trip. I almost passed on buying this magnetic 1971 map of Disney World thinking they would definitely be available at the Magic Kingdom. Well, I only saw them at the airport and nowhere else during the entire trip. In fact, the Magic Kingdom celebrated it's 40th anniversary just three weeks earlier and the airport store had more commemorative merchandise than what I actually saw at the Magic Kingdom. What's up with that?

The characters are separate magnets and can be moved around on the map or removed altogether. I love this kind of "retro" souvenir. I just wish there had been more items like this for sale.

I only saw these A thru E ticket magnets at the airport store and Downtown Disney and again, NOT in the Magic Kingdom. Weird! Maybe they were just sold out?

These attraction poster magnets were also from the airport and could not be found at the Magic Kingdom.

Disneyland is selling a similar set. I bought these about a month ago and meant to post them, but never got around to it.

Something else that I have always wanted to take pictures of at the Orlando airport was their "PeopleMover." After arriving at the airport, passengers have to take this transportation system from the satellite terminals over to the main terminal. The stations have always reminded me a little bit of Walt Disney World's 1975 Tomorrowland or early EPCOT Center.....or even like something out of the movie, "Logan's Run." They have a very 1970's or early 1980's sci-fi look to me. I tried to look up how old the system was, but the only thing I could find out was that construction began on some new terminals in 1978 and was completed in 1980, so it's possible that these go back that far. I hope they never try to update them!

Stay tuned for more Orlando trip reports as we visit all four Disney Parks and both of the Universal Parks!

Yes, this is the way to post a trip report! Detail, man, detail. I had no idea there was so much stuff at the Orlando Airport. Love those retro magnet things. I'm a bit confused, what is that "portal" with the circular blue neon lights - something to do with the Peoplemover? Is it just a cool thing to look at?

Dan, yes I learned my lesson on my very first visit to Orlando. I passed up some souvenirs at the airport store and never saw them at any of the parks and then the shop was closed on our way back home. Maybe it's just that the airport store sells the stuff at a slower rate and the parks sell out of certain items.

SWS, you are right, the airport peoplmover is like riding your very first Orlando attraction!

Connie, Thank you!

Major, I wish I had taken some better pics of the peoplemover and it's station. The white squarish tube-like thing is what the cars pull into as they enter the station. The round window with the blue neon is the very end of the line. If you look at that pic, on the other side of that window is the track for the cars. They stop there and load, then they reverse direction and pull out onto the same track they just came in on.

JG, When I saw those attraction poster magnets at DL, I got excited and thought there would be differnt "sets" of them, but there was just the one. You are right...they are gems and I think they need to use them more in their merchandising! I know back in the nineties there were a couple boxed set of note cards that used the poster artwork. There were also some very similar magnets to these, but a little larger in size, and there was a calendar and phone book too.

I wonder if they will just send the cast members in from the Disney store to take the Spider-Man? Really good post, I guess there is no point to even visit Disney World when you can just go to the airport!